A night at the theater

The Missus, Young Son, and I saw "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" at the Ahmanson theater in downtown L.A. last night.

http://www.agentlemansguidebroadway.com/

It was a great show, very funny and clever and well done musical numbers.  I particularly appreciated the number "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" where a Lee-Enfield rifle was waved around and handed back and forth between the characters.  The person signing mentioned his service in the Boer War and a "Martini-Henry Mk II rifle".  Yep, got one of those too.

Young Son performed in a show at the Ahmanson as a small boy.

Here he is standing next to the poster from his show in the lobby of the theater last night!

"Brooklyn" movie review

Last night the Missus and I rented the movie "Brooklyn".  It is the story of a young Irish woman in the early 1950s who emigrates from Ireland to Brooklyn.  

It is a quiet story, happy and sad and full of wonderful Irish brogues and lots of Irish red hair.  The woman (more a girl at first) is sad and desperately homesick in Brooklyn on her own and living in a boardinghouse with other mostly Irish girls but in time she begins to make a life for herself until suddenly she must return to Ireland.   

It is a movie were the priest is kindly, the girls in the boarding house who seem to be catty are actually nice, the Italian-American boy who loves Irish girls is a gentleman...in short just how we wish live to be.

The movie gets the period right, all the way down to the fashions and the look of the streets.

I enjoyed it a lot and highly recommend it.  4 stars

P-51 Mustang - Cadillac of the Skies! (for my birthday)

So here it is, my 62nd birthday which finds me eligible for Social Security and certainly eligible for AARP (I'm not taking either, thanks).  Feeling like what could happen on a birthday when I'm getting older and closer to geezerhood, when my loving wife and children presented me with a certificate for a ride on a genuine P-51 Mustang WW2 fighter!!!!   Suddenly 62 is looking like a really good age to be.

The Mustang is everyone's favorite warbird, and how can it not be with its combination of beauty, speed, and barely suppressed lethality?

Here is a  short dramatic presentation of the Mustang in action from the excellent film "Empire of the Sun". The scene has violence as it is portraying wartime so be warned.  The whole film is very much worth seeing.

Thanks so very much to the Missus and the Grouch kids.  You have made my decade and the best birthday present ever, even surpassing my bike on my 11th birthday!

Star Trek Heaven Update

The Missus, Young Son, and I traveled to the Pantages theater in Hollywood last Sunday to see and hear the 50th anniversary orchestral and visual tribute to the Star Trek universe.

Read the original post here:  http://citizengrouch.blogspot.com/2016/04/star-trek-heaven.html

The theater was packed with Star Trek fans with what looked to be not a seat left unfilled.  Some attendees were wearing Federation Fleet uniforms and one young lady sported a dress made from Star Trek print fabric!

The music was great, taken from the various shows and movies and accompanied by film clips on the big screen.  Everyone including us enjoyed it immensely and even if the performance hadn't been wonderful, the people watching was great fun in itself!

If you have the chance and are at all a Star Trek fan ( I saw the first episode when it aired in 1966 and immediately dropped my allegiance to Lost in Space and switched wholeheartedly to Star Trek) I highly recommend this production if you are lucky enough to have it stop in your home town.

Bundu Trek to the rescue

http://bundutrekusa.blogspot.com/2016/04/bundu-trek-to-rescue.html

Bundu Trek helps out a stranded motorist but not in the way you might imagine!

Star Trek Heaven!

Simple Definition of serendipity

•  luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant
•  things that are not looked for

Last Sunday when I went to collect the newspaper from the driveway I found that we got a copy of the Los Angeles Times along with the valley paper that we subscribe to.  Unfortunately for subscriber, we appear to have gotten their Sunday paper 

Since the LA Times has become slightly more objective in its reporting recently I decided to read it rather than immediately recycle it to bird cage liner.

While reading the entertainment section, what to my wondering eyes should appear but the answer for a Star Trek geek's prayers!

The Pantages theater is offering performances on the 1st and 2nd, and the Missus scarfed up tickets for the three Grouch estate residents to attend tonight on the 2nd!   It wasn't easy to get the tickets, and it wasn't cheap but we are anticipating a great show.  After all, I have the themes to "Star Trek Voyager" and "Star Trek Enterprise" on my Ipod.  I know it is great music.

Stand by for a show review soon.